I think the basic point is, everbody here is doing what he *can* do. _For free!_
Also, it seems somewhat unfortunate for you, that "your" apps refuse to work,
granted. But most of the Applications I'm trying to run /do run/.
And by the time (within the last 6 months) they started doing so *without*
having to install MSI, DCOM nor Internet Explorer. That's pretty much a good
piece of work done. (What's up with MDAC, all you folks here, huh? XD)
Also, I see most of the installers became able to run and install their software
*without* having to use a native Windows installation to run the setup. What is
Office2003 under WINE good for, if you will be still in the need for Windows to
install it?
That, plus there are _enough_ open source tools, utilities and applications
having the same purpose as many Windows applications, e.g. OpenOffice which
pretty much gives everything needed to the *average*
Word/Excel/Access/Powerpoint user. Many customers I know tend to use such
products instead of buying expensive Microsoft licenses, which is actually one
of the goals of using /open source/ and /Linux/, right?